Novdoggie
Kennel Enthusiast
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That journalist has been reading the Kennel. Sadly, I think he is right.That last question lol
That journalist has been reading the Kennel. Sadly, I think he is right.That last question lol
Which only proves the point about the forwards. People can scream all they like for our forwards to get out of the way, but unless they first win the ruck our young inexperienced backline isn't going to do much with the ball, and this is increasingly true the better the opposition.The big difference is Penrith have Yeo who is one of the best ball playing forwards and Api who gives great service and makes good decisions.
We have Jackson who is the worst ball playing forward dominating touches as a link man and JMK who provides the worst service.
We can't copy Penriths style with inferior players. We need to get the forwards out of the way and let our halves get more touches in the 20. We have 4 settlers every set in the 20 because of JMK and Jackson wasting tackles. That's why it's a fair question and it'd be nice if Baz addressed it.
The Melbourne game is the perfect example of the problem I'm talking about the question the English journo asked.. We had countless sets in their 20 but waste them all and don't look like scoring because too many plays are wasted on settlers.Which only proves the point about the forwards. People can scream all they like for our forwards to get out of the way, but unless they first win the ruck our young inexperienced backline isn't going to do much with the ball, and this is increasingly true the better the opposition.
Again, go back and re-watch the first 20 minutes against the Strom. Gifted field position, forwards dominating the ruck = nope, quick ptb = nope, forwards getting opposition forwards wrong footed or caught up in the dummy half area = not a chance, spread it to the backs = fail every time.
We aren't in a position to compete with our current backline unless our forwards are winning the middle third.
I don't know if you are willfully missing the point or just don't understand the game. Go back and look at what happened when we did spread it in the attacking zone. Complete fail. You can double the amount of times you involve the halves and the backline in that situation if you like, you are still going to get nothing but fails until the forwards create opportunity for space and time. They weren't able to do that against the Strom, partly because Melbourne are absolute cheats in the ruck and the ref fell for it (our PTB speed in the first half was over 4s, which is putrid). So the point still stands, you can come up with all the stats you like about who touches the ball in what position of the field, it is irrelevant without paying attention to how the forward battle is going. A quality experienced half can sometimes find a way to outsmart a dominant forward pack, but we don't have any of those right now. When we are in the attacking zone we have no choice but to go to our forwards first. In the game against Melbourne whenever we went wide the defenders outnumbered us BECAUSE we were spreading without having gained any dominance in the middle.The Melbourne game is the perfect example of the problem I'm talking about the question the English journo asked.. We had countless sets in their 20 but waste them all and don't look like scoring because too many plays are wasted on settlers.
You don't need forwards taking hit ups repeatedly on their line. Play the balls are always slow on the goal-line because so many bodies get tangled up which is another reason to avoid those plays but JMK keeps giving it to a forward for a settler over and over again.
Anyone who defends the current attacking structures is in no position to question someone's knowledge of the game.. We've scored 40 points in 5 games. That's 8 points a game. It's not just against Melbourne and Penrith where our attack has struggled.I don't know if you are willfully missing the point or just don't understand the game. Go back and look at what happened when we did spread it in the attacking zone. Complete fail. You can double the amount of times you involve the halves and the backline in that situation if you like, you are still going to get nothing but fails until the forwards create opportunity for space and time. They weren't able to do that against the Strom, partly because Melbourne are absolute cheats in the ruck and the ref fell for it (our PTB speed in the first half was over 4s, which is putrid). So the point still stands, you can come up with all the stats you like about who touches the ball in what position of the field, it is irrelevant without paying attention to how the forward battle is going. A quality experienced half can sometimes find a way to outsmart a dominant forward pack, but we don't have any of those right now. When we are in the attacking zone we have no choice but to go to our forwards first. In the game against Melbourne whenever we went wide the defenders outnumbered us BECAUSE we were spreading without having gained any dominance in the middle.
Our other option is midfield breaks, which is what we did 2nd half yesterday with a perfectly timed spread which included two good decoy runners, the second of which backed up and ended up scoring the try. Penriff helped us on that play by not rushing up in defence.
I don't mind the response to the stats question. The bloke was using "averages" as part of his argument, which immediately makes it invalid for commenting on a specific game.
Fact: in every game so far our 7 has had more touches than Burton, and we've complained that he isn't getting in the game enough. Yesterday was very different, Burto got more touches than our 7, in fact he got more touches than any other game besides the Donkos game when we had 60% of the ball.
Fact: we had less ball yesterday than any game this year. And much less in the attacking zone.
It looked as though Flanagan played conservatively, but after the putrid media last week, are we surprised? He got a safe game under his belt, seemed to communicate well, had sensible involvement. It was a suitable reintroduction to first grade given all the crap that has gone on.
In the process of having a safe but solid first game back he has left egg on the face of all the muck rakers going on about the club not talking to him, or duty of care rubbish. He is clearly as much a part of the squad as anyone, and he looks happy and focused, no issues, other than dumb muck rakers.
The irrelevant question at the end perhaps shows that the media can't handle being wrong.
Hello Mike, the problem with your question is it relies on post hoc ergo propter hoc logic, if you know what that means then you know why your question was stupid. If you don't know what that means then look it up you lazy shit journalist.Apparently this is the guy.
Kennel reader confirmed @Mutt Dafty